My Maine Coon (Betsy-the-pirate-kitty) is very noisy. She shouts for food - about 12 times a day - shouts to let me know she's caught ANOTHER rabbit* and is about to turn my bedroom into an abattoir, shouts some more if she wants attention, makes very loud miaows to let me know she's come in through my bedroom window, then does it again to tell me she's going out again and then has a good old sing song to get my daughter's corgi wound up and barking (which never fails). When she's finished vocalising she restarts my computer.... Oh, and then she sits on the Sky+ box and switches it off, usually when OH is watching a 'vital' football match.
I love her dearly and wouldn't change her for the world life is never dull with Betsy around.
* I tell her she shouldn't talk with her mouth full.

[I notice a couple of you mention your breed of cat - I understand some breeds tend to be more talkative than others; is this right?

And also with the mention of how quieter cats were maybe taken away from their mums too early, and BigBHM talking about their quiet cat being very dependent on them, I'm wondering -
do quiet cats tend to be more nervous than talky cats?
My girl is very confident. Lets even people she's only just met pick her up. She also seems quite fearless generally (not too bothered by thunder or fireworks, and I saw her chase a cat twice her size out of the garden a while back.)[/quote]

I think that most of the oriental breeds tend to be more vocal than others, particularly Siamese/Burmese but I'm not sure of the reason other than human breeding of these cats which may have inadvertently selected for more vocal cats. They can also be very loud!!!

I have not heard of any correlation between early weaning & quieter cats, or quiet cats = nervous cats. One of my female cats came from the Cats Protection League & was a real scaredy cat at first, very timid & frightened of her own shadow ~ but it didn't stop her having a loud voice! As I said before, the frequency & type of vocalisations are usually learned behaviours from interactions with people so genetics & early weaning etc would probably not be expected to affect the amount of meowing a cat makes.

My favourite is the "silent meow" when they look at you & just go through the motions of meowing without any sound coming out. Provided the cat knows you are looking at it, it can be just as effective from the cat's point of view.

My dog does that. (Well, not a silent meow of course, a silent bark, I would be worried if he started meowing)

My kitten does it! Very cute!

He's pretty chatty, and has a range of chirrups and miaows to talk to you, sometimes they mean something, sometimes he's just talking! He also purrs like a MACHINE, you just can't stop him! He is very relaxed and happy!

My cat miaows for his tea and breakfast and anything he thinks he is entitled to in between!! Otherwise he doesn't miaow much, but does make a funny other sort of noise, like a brrr almost! He also does a very squeaky purr (accompanied by a lot of dribbling) if he's having a particularly good stroke. I've never heard a squeaky purr before.

His brother wasn't that chatty really! The odd hello here and there! He preferred physical hello's and goodbyes - used to see me off to work, and run to me when I got home. Lovely boy.

Betsy sounds adorable, but very full-on! She'd tire me out, I'm sure.


Interesting reading, thanks wilhemina.

I've never seen my girl do the silent meow. I think she thinks it's not worth opening her mouth unless noise comes out or she's eating.

roxy, 15 weeks, is a quiet girl, apart from purring like a motorbike at the slightes physical contact!

scooby, 10 weeks, on the other hand ... i swear sometimes hes singing! mostly picking him up for a cuddle is what he's after, unless you're stood infront of the fridge or chopping board ... in which case you can be guaranteed hes after cooked sandwich meat or prawns!!

They are but babies! How adorable! I got my girl at about 10 or 11 weeks, and I can't remember her making very much noise at all then.

I have a deaf cat and he meows a lot. Only thing is he doesn't realise he is doing it, which can be super annoying! I don't know if he likes the vibration of the meowing in his throat, he seems to do it when we are sleeping and ignoring him.

Best thing about having a deaf cat, he can't hear us come home, and he is normally asleep, so I sit on the bed and watch him, after 30 secs he realises something is watching him, wakes up and gets dead excited, but he is all dopey and sleepy. Super cute!

I have 2 orientals and not only are they very loud the only time they shut up is when they are asleep - which doesn't always match up with when i am asleep!

My two are quite loud. Lyra is "chatty" as in she will make clicky noises and chirrups but hardly "meows" as such. When she was a kitten she used to meow a lot, mostly asking where her sister was I think! I often get told off for something or other by her clicking at me

Daisy is quiet except for 2 things
When she wants a cuddle.
When she has a toy in her mouth and wants to show you. You get a running commentry as she travels from wherever she started to where you are.

They are both very cute

They are both bengal mixes. Lyra Oriental/Bengal, Daisy Maine Coon/ Bengal.

My cat Chester is seriously vocal. He's a bengal/tabby mix, his Dad was a pedigree Bengal and his Mum just a totally lovely moggie.

He miaows, chirps and chirrups away to anyone who will speak to him! He will have a 'conversation' with you, miaowing in response to your speech. Very sweet!

On the other hand our other Alfie only miaows when he wants to go in or out, and the youngest cat Mojo rarely miaows at all. I think it depends on the individual cat!

Hi sorry I hadn't seen this. She was eight weeks and she was loud then! I wouldn't have her any other way. She makes me laugh and I can tell what she wants from the type of mioaw.

When she is tired she is worse, she gets very moody and that ups the noise scale!

My kitten Winnie (female) is always meowing. I worried the first few days because she was meowing a lot! I thought something was wrong. She seems to be settling in very well though..Seems like a happy kitten. Very affectionate. Sometimes she meows at me for no reason lol I assume its just to let me know she's happy. I've come to the conclusion that a slightly longer meow means she's not happy, or annoyed for some reason...came to this yesterday, she was asleep on my lap...I moved my leg very slightly and she meowed loudly at me lol. Felt really guilty.

gemsypoo-

Awww. I love my cat's face when she's just woken and looks dopey.


Lol!


Lyra's a beautiful name.
I smiled at the mention of Daisy making a noise when she wants to show you a toy.
My girl had one toy that whenever she picked it up, she meowed loads. I don't know why, but she never made any noise with any of her other toys.


I want my cat to make some cute chirruping noises! *sulks* She only meows. The only variation is how long and how loud.


Loud at eight weeks - eek. I think my girl didn't start making much noise until she was 3 or 4 months old. Mind you, my memory's so awful, I might be wrong.
I think tiredness makes my girl meow a bit more too. But it seems going out/being out/wanting to go out makes her meow more. She's loudest when she's out in the rain and I let her in. She's definitely complaining strongly that she's very unhappy to be wet then.


Hehe. My girl does extra long and loud meows when she gets caught in the rain. So I agree longer meows can mean extra displeasure, lol.
Goodness, Winnie had a good moan just because you dared to move your leg?
Little madam. Makes my girl sound angelic.

My ginger boy likes to announce his presence when he enters through the cat flap. If it is raining at the time, his miaows get quite frantic, lol. However, despite the fact that he is a great big bundle of cuddly ginger fluff, his miaows always sound very "Larry Grayson-ish". I can almost imagine him miaowing "Shut that door!" Oh - and he snores like a trouper!

My little tuxy girl chirups, and it is a lovely noise! She was a stray, and was pregnant when found - she used to chirrup to her kittens in the same way she chirrups to me.

My gorgeous all black boy will have a "conversation" with you too. He says "hello" when he jumps up on me, and then he stares intently at my mouth as I am talking to him,and he makes little squeaks, and mews, and other noises in response. Adorable.